Ministry of Education
Union HRD Minister launches the 3rd edition of World’s Biggest Open Innovation Model - ‘Smart India Hackathon- 2019’
For the 1st time, Private industry/organisations and NGOs can also send their problem statements to students under SIH-2019
The third edition of World’s Biggest Open Innovation Model - Smart India Hackathon 2019 was launched by the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Shri Prakash Javadekar in New Delhi today.
MHRD, AICTE, Persistent Systems and i4c have joined hands to make a hat trick with their highly popular and innovative Smart India Hackathon initiative . SIH-2019 is a nationwide initiative to provide students a platform to solve some of pressing problems we face in our daily lives, and thus inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem solving.
Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said that in this new edition of SIH-2019 over 1 Lakh+ students from around 3000 institutions will have the opportunity to work on challenges faced within the Public Sector Organizations and the Union Ministries. And for the 1st time, it will also include problem statements from industry as well as NGOs.
He said that while students would get a chance to create world class solutions for some of the top organizations in the world, it would also be a chance for organizations to meet the brightest young minds and brand themselves from hiring perspective. He informed that the students from IISc, IITs, NITs and AICTE/UGC approved institutions will also compete to creatively solve problems and offer technical solutions.
The Minister also informed that like its prequel, Smart India Hackathon- 2019 would also have 2 sub-editions – Software edition  and Hardware edition . He said that Public/ Private sector organizations and NGOs may join SIH2019 to get innovative solutions to their problems in cost effective ways.
Some more benefits to join SIH are as follows:
- Opportunity to brand your organization nationally
- Recognition and visibility for your organization across all technical institutions in India
- Young techies from all over the country offer out-of-the-box solutions to your problems
- Be part of World’s biggest Open Innovation Movement
- Opportunity to work with some of the best talent in the country
- Technology Students across India compete to creatively solve problems and offer technical solutions
- Harness expertise of lakhs of students from IISc, IITs, NITs and AICTE/UGC approved institutions
Dr. Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE, Chairman, Smart India Hackathon 2019 said, “SIH has been trend setting. Following the success of SIH2017 and SIH2018, it gives us extreme pleasure to unveil its third edition - Smart India Hackathon 2019. In the last 2 years, students got an opportunity to solve problem statements from government departments, this time they are getting problem statements from Private Organizations as well. This will increase their chance for employability and enterprising opportunities.”
Secretary, MHRD, Shri R Subrahmanyam, said that it is exciting that the World’s biggest open innovation model - Smart India Hackathon 2019 will also involve our win-win collaboration with all the private sector organizations. We hope all technical students make the best of this unique opportunity and make SIH2019 a grand success.”
Dr. Abhay Jere, CIO, Ministry of HRD said, “With Smart India Hackathon 2019, for the first time we are approaching Public and Private sector organizations, and NGOs for sharing problem statements. We expect about 200+ such organizations will join hands with us to challenge young minds from India to come up with the most innovative solutions”.
The earlier two editions of this initiative were a roaring success. Some major key points of Smart India Hackathon 2017 and Smart India Hackathon 2018are mentioned below.
- Smart India Hackathon 2017 saw problem statements coming from 29 union ministries of India. Out of the top ideas from this edition, 20 projects were mentored and creatively developed. They are now ready for handover to the concerned ministries and deployment.
- Smart India Hackathon 2018 involved 27 union ministries and 17 state governments and for the first time introduced a special Hardware edition. The ministries are now in the process of shortlisting some of the best ideas from the 200+ winning teams  and the process of mentoring and developing full-fledged solutions will soon be kick started. Here is a brief snapshot of Smart India Hackathon 2018.